Atlanta Podcast Spotlights Local Businesses
Between2Trains is a podcast that spotlights local businesses in the North Dekalb section of Atlanta. Forward Push’s Marc Apple was a recent guest to discuss how the pandemic has effected small businesses and how marketing can help them stay in business.
Transcript from the episode:
Theo: Hello, ladies and gentlemen, this is your captain speaking. My name is Theo and you’re listening to “Between 2 Trains,” change station that brings you great entrepreneurs twice month. Your hosts are Eric Miles and Van Pappas, now, sit back, relax and enjoy the ride.
Van: Welcome to another “Between 2 Trains.” My name is Van, your friendly financial planner.
Eric: And I’m Eric, your better business banker.
Van: And Eric, today we have Marc Apple from Forward Push. Forward Push is an internet marketing firm right here in downtown Chamblee. Marc, welcome to the show. Is that right? Is that what you would call yourself, an internet marketing company?
Marc: I would say that we are just a marketing agency because we do have clients that we do non-digital, so that’s TV, radio, billboards.
Van: Oh, okay.
Marc: So, it’s almost everything that’s needed for a small business to get their name out. We’re doing that kind of work.
Van: Excellent. So we got TV, radio, you said billboards?
Marc: Billboards as well.
Van: And on the internet side, web design, right? What else?
Marc: Web design, we’re doing video marketing, email marketing, we’re doing search engine optimization, which is SEO, and then also Google ads and Facebook ads. And then on the social side, we’re managing people’s Facebook and Instagram pages as well. So it really is, whatever a small business owner is kind of struggling with, doesn’t have the time for, where that net.
Van: Well, I know working with the chamber members and interacting with a lot of small business owners, you know, small entrepreneur’s so focused on whatever business they have, the sales of that business, the running of that business, that sometimes marketing falls to the side. So I would think that, you know, you would be a perfect fit for that small business owner that says, “I just don’t have the time to do all those things. And I need someone to take that off my plate.”
Marc: Yeah, 100%. My favorite thing to say is that small business owners are all liars. And by that, I mean that they all continually tell themselves, “I’ll get to that when I have time.” And they’re typically saying that about a new website, posting on Facebook, getting to video marketing, “I’ll get to that when I have time.” And I’m also a small business owner. So I understand that when that client calls, that Facebook post isn’t maybe getting out or creating that video just gets pushed to tomorrow, right? So I like to take that sort of attitude of exactly what you’re saying, Van, it really is like, “I need to do this, but I don’t have time.” And what do you do? It’s the shiny object syndrome, right? Chase that squirrel and that squirrel sometimes is the customer that just walked through your door, the phone call that rang, that text message from the customer, and there you go.
Eric: What’s your target, you know, client size in the small business world?
Marc: There’s not really a size where I could say, “Hey, it’s 1 to 10 people,” or anything like that. We specialize in small to medium-size business. If I have to categorize, if I’m really pushed, I kind of say, “We like people that work on Main Street,” we’re really looking for the owner that we can talk to. Typically, there might be a marketing manager or someone involved but at the end of the day, I’m really looking for that small to medium-size business, no matter how many people that are struggling with what we just talked about all those different marketing tactics, they’ve read a bunch of blogs, they’ve wasted a bunch of money, and they just don’t have anyone that they can trust. And that’s where we fall.
Eric: It’s such a difficult thing because you’re dealing with people who have created oftentimes this business from scratch. So it’s like their baby, and they want to control everything, and they want to have their hands and almost everything. So coming in is kind of that outsource partner, like, what… You got to have a lot of skill and tact kind of, you know, approaching that, would you say?
Marc: Yeah, for sure. It’s funny. I’m smiling here because I’m thinking of a conversation I had this morning with a prospect. And he said the exact same words that, “This is my baby. I’ve been working on this for three years,” when he opened his door. “I’ve been through a bunch of marketing companies, nothing’s worked. I don’t know how to do this.” And these are all quotes from a call this morning. “I’m going to go ahead and hire you because I trust you, and I understand what you’re saying.” And that’s where we really excel with me and my team is that our idea is like, “Make it so that the small business owner can understand what they’re spending their money on, understand what the expectations are for the return on investment, and also be super respectful.” Everyone on my team, me included, has an attitude that every time a client writes us a check, that money could have gone to their kids’ education, out for dinner, their vacation, anything else but they chose to spend their money with us. So we better treat it as if it is their baby.
Eric: Yeah. Well, Van, you’ve been kind of a head on kind of digital videos, you posted a lot of stuff on LinkedIn, you know, and Marc, with this quarantine, lockdown, this kind of new normal, so to speak. I mean, I’d imagine that if there are people who weren’t hearing the message, you know, maybe 6 to 12 months ago, perhaps now, they’re a little more open to listening, is that the case?
Marc: Yeah, it’s been incredible. I think we’re one of the shining lights through this pandemic. And it’s weird. You’ll have businesses that are going out of business, that have really been effective and then you’ll have people like us that are helping businesses stay afloat, stay in business, who are doing well, because what has happened is people have woken up to the fact of, “It’s great, I’ve got a shop on Main Street, but no one can buy my products online.” And all of a sudden everything switched online, right? It wasn’t just restaurant takeout, it wasn’t just ordering from Amazon. It was if I needed to go get something from my favorite shop in downtown, well, I can’t go. So what do I do? I go to their website and wait, they don’t have ordering online or they don’t have even curbside pickup, or I can’t see their inventory. Business owners were thrown into a shock, right? You know, March 15th, right in there, all of a sudden, people started waking up and saying, “At the very worst, hey, I don’t even have a website, what am I going to do?” Complete panic. To, “I need to bring online ordering to my website. And/or I think I need to start advertising on Google or on Facebook, I need to get a community going because I will be dead in the water here by the time we get to Christmas, if not sooner.”
Van: So Marc, you’re my age. So you’ve been around and remember, you know, the pre-website days, and then the web came along, and everyone said they had to have a website. And it was very static in nature and not very interactive and then sort of what I like to call Web 2.0 came along and businesses had to recreate their website to be more interactive. Do you think we’re now in maybe a Web 3.0 where the businesses that do have a website are going to have to go back and redo it so that it can deal with, as you said, that the environment of, “Hey, now I need to be able to take orders online, I need to be able to do all these other things online that my website just wasn’t doing before. I had a great website, but now it needs to be even more.” Or do you think that businesses need to come back to you and say, “Hey, let’s redo what we already have.”
Marc: It’s not a matter of redo, it’s a matter of refocusing to what consumers expect. So I’ll give you a great example because I don’t know if I would go so far to say that we’re in a Web 3.0. We probably are in a customer expectation, renaissance. You know, if we have to say something like that. Example is I have a doctor that we work with, and he wasn’t offering telemedicine before the pandemic, it was very much come in for a consultation, just like you’d expect. It’s elective surgery. All of a sudden, he couldn’t have anyone in the office. So we immediately moved to a text messaging platform, that you actually use your phone, you text message him, it verifies who you are by checking your date of birth, and then you actually can have a video conversation with him through your phone, where he can do the consultation. If you need to upload images, so if you have to take pictures, you can take pictures and upload that through the text messaging platform, and it’s completely HIPAA compliant as well for a doctor.
So it was just a matter of realizing, “Okay, well, nobody’s coming in for consultations, we need to make sure that we’ve got some appointments on deck when you can take people.” So what should we do? Let’s pivot to this telemedicine. Another example is figuring out where the holes are in the marketplace. So I have a local attorney who was focusing on divorce. But as you know, the courts were close, people weren’t really getting divorced at the beginning of the pandemic. He also has practiced bankruptcy in the past. We know that bankruptcies are going up. We started pivoting his marketing and his Google ads and his website to talk more about what consumers are actually looking for at the time, bankruptcy. So it’s managing what customers, what people, what all of us are doing now online, versus, “Hey, we need to redo your website,” now the question is, how do people expect to engage with you? That’s what you have to be doing.
Van: So how important is social to that engagement?
Marc: Super important. So the interesting thing that’s happened since the pandemic started is we’re all at home. And we don’t have bosses looking over our shoulders. So it’s very easy to get onto Facebook, to get onto Instagram. And if you actually look at the time spent on these platforms, since April, it’s been going up and up and up. So what’s happened is, there is more inventory to run ads on social but there’s also more people engaging if you’re just posting, and that’s, again, going where the customers are, fish where the fish are, right? So we know now people have gotten so used to being on Facebook, being on Instagram sort of during the day, a lot more. And it goes back to the sort of what I was saying before is people now expect to curbside pickup, right? Even myself, like if the restaurant doesn’t have curbside pickup, I’m kind of thinking like, “Well, what’s happening? Everyone else has it. Wait, I can’t order online?” It’s now become expected. So it is social is now that expected, you just have to be there.
Eric: Well, Van, your wife is your boss. So she’s always looking over your shoulder.
Van: She, you know…you’re right, Eric. But she doesn’t get…she’s an archaeologist, so she doesn’t always get this whole marketing and when I say, “Hey, I’m going into my office to do some marketing,” she looks at me like, “Why? What for?” So…
Eric: She thinks you’re just practicing social distancing from her.
Van: I guess. I want to talk, though, about video in social marketing. You know, it seems to me that people… You know, I’ve written blog articles for years, but you know, I can write this great long blog, how much is more people really going to read it. Talk about a little bit how important it is for these small business owners to incorporate video into what they’re doing.
Marc: That is such a great question because it’s having a page, right? So you said, you mentioned you have a blog article. So let’s say that blog article is 1,500 words. Well, we know that some people will read a 1,500 article on financial advice but we also know that there are some people that will never read that many words, but they will certainly watch a 60-second video of you, Van, explaining what those 1,500 words are. Even better, we know that there are some people that won’t read, won’t watch the video, but they will look at an infographic that’s embedded in that blog article or in a social post that explains the same information.
So again, this goes back to how are you treating your customers or how are you treating the people that you want to be your customers because we all learn in a different way. I particularly won’t read a 1,500 blog article, I will watch a 60-second video of you explaining it. I will watch a two-minute video of you on Facebook, giving me financial advice over a two week period, like I’ve seen you do before which you and I’ve talked off air on this on how great I think those videos are, because they really engage you and they bring you along and I look forward to your next video. Because you as a small business owner have done this, where it’s, “I’m going to tell you the 10 steps over the next 10 days,” and then I’m looking every day…
Van: I love lists. Man, I love lists.
Marc: Yeah, and people love… And exactly, people love those lists. So it is great that you’re doing the blog article, but those videos are just such quick information. And people love seeing people, they love relating to people. When I… We all do this. When’s the last time you read a book, and you start imagining what the characters look like, in your head, and then you go see the movie? And it’s completely different because you have your version of what you look like, what you sound like, and we all do this. So that’s why video is so important because it’s just the ultimate connection.
Van: I’m just hoping like Brad Pitt plays me in the movie, but I don’t think that’s gonna happen.
Marc: I don’t know. Eric, can you make that happen?
Eric: I see a little Keanu Reeves, I don’t know.
Van: Keanu Reeves, yeah, I could do Keanu…yeah, yeah. Keanu would be a perfect fit for me, yeah.
Marc: Yeah, I think so. Great, and I’ll take Brad Pitt, then.
Van: I want to ask, you mentioned earlier about your team. So how many employees do you have? You know, what’s your team made up of?
Marc: Yep, there are 10 of us, and we are situated across the country because we’ve got clients all over the world. So I’ve set it up where we’re in different time zones to be able to better help clients and better help prospects when they want to talk to us, but the core group is here in Atlanta and in Chamblee, and then we’ve got a team in New York. Nashville is where we do podcasting, we have an office in the Google Entrepreneur Center. So we do our podcasting out of there, and then a team on the West Coast in California.
Van: There’s one employee specifically I want to ask about, your employee named Miles Davis.
Marc: Oh, yes. He’s the one that actually does all the work, and he is doing it all for treats as in dog treats.
Van: Eric, Miles is the office dog, so Miles comes into the office and hangs out and helps you all work?
Marc: Yeah, he comes in the office, he hangs out. He’s actually at my feet right now, taking a little nap because, you know, why not? He’s in charge.
Eric: He’s the Chamblee branch manager.
Van: Right.
Marc: That’s right.
Van: Do you find…I mean, you mentioned New York and West Coast, do you find the talent in this industry, you know, kind of the digital and the marketing? Do you find that those markets New York, West Coast, there’s more available talent? Do the employee opportunities just kind of flock to those areas? Or does Atlanta have a lot of natural talent? And is Atlanta branding itself as a tech epicenter?
Marc: I love that question. When I started the agency 10 some odd years ago, I would have told you that it was definitely a New York, California type of environment that I was looking for, and the staff was actually made up of only that. But like everything else, Atlanta included, tech startups are here, there’s great companies here. And that goes the same for if we were to say… We were in Kansas, right? We’re in the middle of the country, you can find talent anywhere now. So it’s become almost a level playing field. What I have found though, is that those traditional markets of the New York, the Los Angeles to San Francisco, are crowded. There’s too much talent there, and you can’t tell who’s good and who’s not good anymore because there’s just too many people to choose from. So I prefer actually to have someone that maybe is in Nashville, where it’s not so crowded, and there’s good people there, and they want to work. And they’re just as good, if not better, than what you might find in one of the traditional, you know, big techs markets.
Eric: It’s kind of interesting, Van, I mean, Atlanta, I’ve heard this, you know, across the board in, you know, small business community, you know, over the last 10 years, you know, Atlanta has really branded itself. And I would say Chamblee has probably gotten a number of entrepreneurial companies locating, Chamblee. I mean, if you can be in different areas, why would you pay for office space in other parts of Atlanta, you know?
Van: That’s great question, Eric, and I want to turn it to Marc because your business, you locate it here in downtown Chamblee, you’re right on Peachtree Road, which is our Main Street of sorts. Tell us why you picked that location because we asked that of our guests from time to time because we have so many small entrepreneurs often wonder what is it about Chamblee that attracts people to come open their business here?
Marc: Yeah, so for us, it was a pretty easy decision, I could have gone anywhere. So typically, an agency like mine is going to have an office in Midtown, or in downtown or in the Virginia Highlands area, you know, sort of the hip spots, and I chose Chamblee because of the community aspect. I saw an opportunity that people were getting together and acting as a community. So I spent time before we signed a lease, I spent time at the coffee house, I spent time at the brewery, got my haircut downtown a couple different times. I just started talking to people to find out the vibe and see if it was a good fit because I knew for us to be a good partner within the community, the community had to have already other good partners in it that we weren’t going to be able to establish it ourselves. So it was an easy decision and we found a great space on Peachtree Road, like you said.
Van: And now they’re doing that great streetscape right in front of you…
Marc: Yeah.
Van: And I know it’s a hassle probably from a traveling perspective, but I think when they’re done with that, Peachtree Road is just going to look so incredible. You’re going to have sidewalks that people can walk up and down and browse the different retail shops and what a great thing downtown is becoming in Chamblee.
Marc: Yeah, totally. And…
Van: Before we go to our commercial break, I do have one more question to ask and that is around what you do…you know, you mentioned all the different things you do, video and social and this and that. But I want to talk a little bit about how the process works from a content perspective. I’m a small business owner, I come to you and hire you, I say, “Hey, you know…” I’m assuming you go through some kind of intake process to get to know your new client. But are you creating all the content for them? Are you sort of giving them homework and saying, “Hey, I need, you know, you to shoot a three-minute video,” tell us a little bit about the content that you are using to help market their business.
Marc: Our job is to make it as easy as possible for them. So we’re doing all of the work. And how we start our engagements, we always have a free discovery with anyone that calls us, so we’re willing to investigate to see if we’re going to be a good fit first. And once the small business signs on, then we run through a couple different exercises with them. They include a creative brief so we can start to figure out what their background is? Who they’re trying to attract? Sometimes it might be what websites they like and don’t like, we dive pretty deep with them. We also help them understand which I have found most small business owners skip this step when they start their business. It’s called a buyer persona. So who actually do they want their customers to be? And what are their traits and their habits? Because we’re now their marketing agency, so we’re writing content, we’re making these videos, we’re coming up with the scripts for the video and filming the clients, we’re creating these social posts, they have to be on point to who the audience they’re trying to reach. So we’re taking care of all of that for the clients so that they can do what they love, which is why they started their business. We love doing marketing, which is why I started my business.
Van: So if you’re going to make a video, you draft up the script for the video, would you then go to their business and shoot it there? Would you shoot it yourself? Does it just end on what it is, you know?
Marc: It depends on what it is and what the scope. So we can do everything from creating a video with our own voiceover talent using stock footage, and maybe footage from the business itself, we can do a video by capturing on Zoom. Like, you’ve seen this where people do Zoom, you record it and we actually can make a video out of that with music and title cards, we do a lot of that now since the pandemic happened. And before the pandemic, we were going to the businesses, to brick and mortars and actually setting up two cameras lights, we have a full script and going in and filming a video. So it really just depends on what’s going to work to generate business for the client.
Eric: What would you say, Marc, to the people who are perhaps too content with their content? And they think that, “Wow, you know, this pandemic was rough, but we’re gonna bounce back, I can just, you know, keep on doing the same old thing, I don’t need to switch it up.” People are maybe a little stubborn, you know, they’ve got an established business, they haven’t had a need to change, you know, but maybe they’re not realizing the full potential. There’s a lot of opportunity that they’re missing out on because they don’t market to their clients in a different way. What would you say to them?
Marc: I would say be very cautious. There was a great article a couple weeks ago from John Mueller, who was on the Google search team. So this is like, this is the top here. And it was talking about how rankings fluctuate within a Google search, and what the reasons were. And one of the reasons is consumers’ habits change. So what it means is that you could be ranking number one for let’s just say years on something, but all of a sudden, consumers decide that curbside pickup of your competitor is a better option, or your competitor offers a new service and all the sudden they’ve overtaken that number one position. So it’s not so much that the business owner is stubborn, is they have to realize that the consumer habits because of this pandemic have changed drastically that no one could have ever predicted that all of a sudden, we’re all going to be wearing mask, we’re all going to be doing curbside pickup. Going to the grocery store is going to be sort of a thing of the past because you can Instacart, you can use Amazon, why leave your house when… You know, in my family, it was traditional that we would go to the grocery store, you know, the Whole Foods in Chamblee every Friday night. I haven’t been since March 15th to a grocery store.
Van: Wow.
Marc: And I know I’m not the only one because my habits have changed. And my wife and I have kind of decided like, “Why do we need to go, we just shop online and we’re… It’s fruits, vegetables, and some ketchup.” And so, you know, right? So what’s the difference? But our habits have changed.
Eric: Yeah.
Van: Well, we are up to our commercial break, we need to hear from our sponsor. When we come back, we’re going to play our ever fun, Can You Ace It game where, Marc, we’re going to ask you some questions, see how well you know the answers to these questions. We’ll be back right after these.
Announcer: [inaudible 00:25:09] is here from “Between 2 Trains.” I want to tell you about two great events that are coming up later this month, they’re near and dear to my heart. The first is the Atlanta Greek Festival. That’s right. It’s that time of year for the Greek festival. But this year because of the pandemic, it’ll be a little bit different. Unfortunately, you won’t be able to come hang out and watch the dancers and listen to the music and go through the shops. This year, the church is doing a road trip to Greece, so it will be a drive-thru only festival. What that means is you’ll just be able to pull up in your car, order all the great Greek food that you love eating and take it home to the family. That will be on September 25th through the 27th, come on by and get all the great Greek food.
Another event that’s coming up also on September 25th is an exceptional evening benefiting Elaine Clark Center, and I’m going to be emceeing this event. And it’s going to be awesome because it’s going to be all virtual and free. You’ll be able to go to Facebook and check out. Just do a search for Elaine Clark Center, you’ll get all the details. There will be a live event over at Factory Atlanta, but we have to limit to no more than 50 people. You’ll be able to join in in the raffle. There’ll be some silent auction items. So check out at the Elaine Clark Center. Remember, we interviewed them back on Episode 48. So you might want to go back and listen to that episode. And then come and enjoy an exceptional evening on September 25th at 7:30 pm, all virtual.
Van: Welcome back to “Between 2 Trains” My name is Van and we are here with Mark Apple of Forward Push and we are ready to play our Can You Ace It game, brought to you by the local Chamblee Ace Hardware, go see Brian and Stacey what great small entrepreneurs we have right here in Chamblee, they can help you with any of your project needs. So Eric, what do we got for Marc today?
Eric: Well, Marc, we know you know all about search engine optimization, marketing, social media, but we want to know how much you know about the city you decided to locate in, the city of Chamblee, aka, the Center of the Universe?
Van: Oh, I like that the act… No, it’s the Actual Center of the Universe.
Eric: The Actual Center of the Universe.
Van: The Actual Center of the Universe. That’s actually branded and I believe someone in our community is trying to get that trademark or registered or whatever you call it, copyright.
Eric: I think that would be a great thing because it’s the Actual Center of the Universe, but at any rate, our Can You Ace it game takes us there. So these questions are based around Chamblee. And multiple guesses and let’s just dive right in. Are you ready, Marc?
Marc: I’m ready. Bring it on.
Eric: All right. Question number one, Chamblee was originally dairy farms, during the late 19th century, an intersection of two railroads was constructed in Chamblee, one carried passengers from Atlanta to Charlotte, while the other ferried workers and goods back and forth from a factory in Roswell to Atlanta. What was the original name of the area before it was Chamblee? Either A, Keswick, B, Roswell Junction, or C, Camp Gordon.
Marc: Let’s go with A.
Van: [vocalization] Sorry, that is wrong. Keswick is the name of a neighborhood in Chamblee. It was actually called Roswell Junction. The settlement which is known as Roswell Junction emerged because of the intersection and the United States Postal Service decided to establish a post office here, however, the feeling of the name was too similar to the city of Roswell. So they randomly selected from a list of petitioners for the new name of the post office, and they call the post office Chamblee, hence, when the city were formed in like 1907, they call it Chamblee.
Eric: I’m glad they did that.
Van: Roswell Junction.
Eric: I’m glad they did that. Can you imagine the confusion if it was Roswell and [inaudible 00:29:29]?
Van: It was Roswell Junction. “Hey, go over to Roswell. No, no, no Roswell Junction.”
Marc: It would be like a city that had a street name that changed its name 500 different times.
Van: Oh, that doesn’t happen in Atlanta, does it?
Marc: No way.
Van: Peachtree Road doesn’t change its city name.
Marc: No, I have never heard of that.
Van: All right. So, unfortunately, we are oh for one. Let’s see if we can get the next two.
Eric: We’ll bounce back here. Question number two, DeKalb-Peachtree Airport. I believe it’s actually Peachtree DeKalb Airport, P-DeKalb.
Van: No, no, no, no, you’re wrong, Eric, it is actually DeKalb-Peachtree Airport. A lot of people miss do that, they think it’s Peachtree DeKalb Airport but if you look at the sign in front of the building, it actually says, DeKalb-Peachtree Airport. Now, the FAA symbol for the airport is actually PDK, so it’s odd because you think because the symbol is PDK that should be Peachtree DeKalb Airport, but it’s not. Sorry about that. I didn’t mean to interrupt.
Eric: That was not the question. That was not the question.
Van: No. That’s not.
Eric: That was not the question. But I’ve triggered Van there with my own edit and my mistake there. So let me go back from beginning, DeKalb-Peachtree Airport also known as PDK is now the second busiest airport in Georgia. What was the site used for prior to being a commercial airport? Either A, a Clown Rodeo would come set up once a year to entertain citizens, B, in 1917, it served as World War I training ground, and in 1942 served as a Naval Air Station, C, in the 1950s Mayor Malone would throw a big square dance in the open fields.
Marc: I’m gonna go with B.
Van: Ding, ding, ding, ding, you are correct. Good job.
Marc: Yes.
Van: You know, although, I would like to see the Clown Rodeo come. That would be kind of fun. How do we get a clown rodeo to come to Chamblee?
Eric: How about an actual rodeo? Let’s get some bulls, you know, get a bunch of dirt in there. Get a bunch of… I think that would be good. Especially since Chamblee was old dairy farm.
Van: So here’s some interesting facts about the airport, Eric. The airport is actually the third largest pair of property taxes in the county. The third-largest pair of property taxes and is responsible for an estimated 7,300 jobs and generates 130 million in income for local residents. And in 2,000, the National Air Transportation Association named it one of America’s 100 most needed airports. A whole country, 100 most needed airports, PDK was one of them.
Eric: Well, I mean, I think that makes sense, you know. But it’s… I think for people who are local to Chamblee, who grew up in Atlanta, you know, Hartsfield always got the main focus, it was always touted as one of the busiest in the world, you know. And with all the industry like Delta kind of surrounding there, you know, PDK kind of maybe gets forgotten about but for the community, it can be a huge economic driver. There are a lot of good things, not to mention just the property taxes that they pay. They are lucky it come about, it’s a huge resource.
Van: The new master plan for the airport is talking about including a National Aviation Museum on the property where they will highlight the nation’s, you know, history of aviation. Anyways. All right, so we’re one for one in our Can You Ace It game.
Eric: All right, question number three. Chamblee had a mayor for 32 years, who was the mayor? Either A, current Mayor Eric Koertzen, B, Mayor Doug Brown, or C, Mayor Woody Malone.
Marc: I will go with C, Malone.
Eric: Ding, ding, ding, ding, ding.
Van: Ding, ding, ding, ding, you are correct. From 1950 to 1982, think about that.
Eric: One guy.
Van: Thirty-two years, one guy was running the city. Also, it should be known that that was when the city still had a mayoral-run city. So right now, that’s not the structure of our government in Chamblee. Right now we have what’s called a city manager-run government where the mayor and council hire a person to run the city. He gets paid a salary and he deals with all the day-to-day stuff in the city. But back then, the mayor was actually…it was a job, a full-time job and he ran the city. And Mayor Malone ran the city with an iron fist for 32 years. Hence the name Malone Street. That’s where it came from. All right, so you won our Can You Ace It game. Congratulations, Marc. You can tout that is a huge victory to all your clients when you’re trying to sign them up, say, “I won that Can You Ace It game.”
Marc: Excellent.
Van: And I want to give an opportunity here because we’re almost out of time for you to tell people, you know, whether they’re a small business owner or know a small business owner that might need your services. You know, how do they get in touch with you? Should they go to your website, send you an email, call you, what do you want them to do?
Marc: Yep, they can go to the website, it’s forwardpush.com. And my email is marc@forwardpush.com. And for all small business owners whether in Chamblee or not, we offer two things. One is a 45-minute discovery session and/or just an evaluation of their website. So we like to make sure that when someone comes to us, that we are going to bring value to the conversation we have with them. So I’d be happy to offer that to everyone listening.
Van: Eric, any final questions for Marc.
Eric: No, I think you know, an Apple a day we’ll keep Google away. Do you have anything regarding that, using the last name there?
Van: Oh, Eric, Eric.
Marc: The only thing I have to that is if my parents would have just named me Mac instead of Marc, [inaudible 00:36:09] difference.
Van: Oh, man. Mac Apple, I got you.
Marc: There you go.
Van: Oh, my goodness, both of y’all. Well, Marc, we…
Eric: Nothing to…
Van: We appreciate you coming on the show, Marc. You know, Eric, what’s going on in the banking world? Is there… We’re done with the… Is there gonna be any more round of help from the government? Or are we done with that this year?
Eric: It’ll be interesting to see, you know, the PPP loan is coming up, the forgiveness periods are about to begin where recipients of the PPP loan apply for forgiveness. You know, it’s difficult to tell what could come about… You know, the stock market is doing well, it’s performing very well. But you’ve got across the country a varied…different regions are still kind of restricted, other regions are a little more comfortable with reemerging. So it’s very tough to tell. I don’t have any guidance, and certainly, anything I say speculatively does not age well this year.
Van: Yeah. I agree with that. And I think that you’re right. And plus, we also got an election that’s going to be pretty controversial. So we’ll see what happens over the next 60 days. Anyways, thanks, everyone, for listening. We will be back in two weeks with another great episode of “Between 2 Trains.”
